MGK blackout – Machine Gun Kelly, 36, says rushing his 2023 blackout tattoo meant for a two-year timeline led to “yellow” skin, severe illness, and temporary paralysis after his lymph nodes were affected—an experience he later described as both a physical ordeal and a turnin
MGK remembers the first week as the moment his “dark mode” blackout tattoo journey stopped feeling like a commitment to art and started feeling like his body sending up a warning signal.
In a June 8 interview with Billboard Canada. the 36-year-old musician—formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly—described how he pushed through his blackout tattoo process in 2023 at a pace he now regrets. Instead of following tattoo artist ROXX’s recommended two-year timeframe. he completed the work in two months. skipping breaks meant for healing.
He also built the routine around his schedule: each morning, MGK said he made the 15-minute drive to ROXX’s L.A. studio, where the “vast majority of his arms, chest and stomach” were covered in ink.
After that sprint, the complications came quickly.
“After the first week, we hit my lymph nodes around my armpits and shoulders, and I got really sick,” MGK told the outlet. “My skin was turning yellow. I wasn’t able to sleep. I stopped being able to move certain parts of my upper body.”
MGK’s description points to a mechanism described by Harvard Medical School: a “body wide immune reaction” can be triggered when immune cells in the skin react to chemicals in tattoo ink and travel to nearby lymph nodes.
The risks are not limited to what MGK experienced. Harvard Medical School lists infections—including bacterial skin infections or viral hepatitis—as well as allergic reactions, scarring, and, rarely, skin cancer as potential health risks associated with tattoos.
MGK emerged from the ordeal with a different kind of momentum. He told Billboard Canada that he felt “extremely inspired” after pushing through the blackout tattoos, framing the experience as both a physical and metaphorical obstacle.
He described it as a turning point that left him “less chaotic” and “more clear-headed.” He also said the “best part” was that his pen was moving “at 100 miles per hour,” according to the outlet.
MGK said there were both personal and professional reasons behind the decision to undergo such a drastic transformation. He described wanting “a change” that went beyond a sound wave. In his account, the tattoos were not just decoration—they were a prompt to confront himself.
He told the outlet that he looked in the mirror, took inventory of the ink on his body, and saw reminders of phases in his life he either didn’t remember or didn’t want to recall. The resulting question was blunt: “Who the [expletive] am I?”
“I saw death and drugs in all these patterns that I was literally writing on my body,” MGK said. “There were happy tattoos, sad tattoos, holy tattoos, hellish tattoos. It was like my bipolarity was screaming off my skin.”
MGK’s account draws a sharp line between speed and consequences. The same decision that compressed a two-year healing process into two months—without planned breaks—also helped bring on the symptoms he described: lymph node involvement. “yellow” skin. sleeplessness. and temporary loss of movement in parts of his upper body.
MGK Machine Gun Kelly blackout tattoo ROXX tattoo risks lymph nodes yellow skin temporary paralysis tattoo ink immune reaction Harvard Medical School